The Secret World Anniversary and Issue 12 News

What a week! Spring and summer are considered, “kitten season” in my neck of the woods, and it shows in more work and more hours. I begin to think that shorter, but more frequent posts may be a better plan than saving my news for one day, when I may wind up not having time to write. Not that I didn’t write at all this week; my new one is up on HolosuiteMedia, check it out for much X-Files geeking and laughing about a younger me attempting fanfic! Other than being super busy, the job is still going well, and I’m still happily naming animals after video game NPC’s.

TSW Anniversary

Other than work, I’ve spent the last couple weeks primarily playing the TSW Anniversary Event I mentioned a bit ago. (Also, Tilty kindly joined us on Beyond the Veil to chat about it.) I thoroughly enjoy world boss events. I love seeing so many people working together, both fighting and making callouts on the #event channel. The fixes the devs implemented this year (lower player caps, less health on the golems) seemed to work well in cutting down on lag, thumbs up there.

Since my main only needed the jingasa hat (and party bag items) this year, I got to spend some time with my alts. This was rather enjoyable for me as it not only cut back on wait time between golems, but also allowed me to experiment with my baby healer. I’m sure she didn’t help much, but she’ll be better in time! I’ve gotten very used to a certain selection of weapons and rotations on my main, it’s always fun playing with something different.

I can’t stress enough that my biggest recommendation for these events is to participate only as long as you continue to have fun. Had I cycled through my alts trying to get everything, I’d have burnt out and become frustrated instead of enjoying the fights for what they were. I used to burn out like that trying to get event items for my (many) alts in other games, and it’s just not worth it. Especially not when I actually enjoy the fights without that self-imposed pressure.

Related, about halfway through I became annoyed that I was “wasting time” getting pax to buy event bags and not winning the items I needed. It’s a side effect of RNG, sometimes luck just isn’t with you. So…I stopped buying them for a while. I continued fighting golems, because I enjoy it, and selling the bags when I felt like it. I put the money towards adding inventory space to my bank instead. While I did end up buying a couple party bags the last night of the event (and got the Mythos Machine!) I’d just like to make the point that even though I’m a completionist myself, if you get annoyed it’s a good idea to take a break.

On the event bag items themselves, I sincerely enjoyed the 70’s theme. Many players – and I include my main in this – tend to wear a lot of black. It’s been neat to see tie-dye invading Agartha, and I was inspired to find a fun outfit theme for my Templar alt. She finally has a personality to her clothes that I enjoy more than her previous semi-professional outfits.

Issue 12

Other TSW news included announcements on The Streaming Ones devstream about the upcoming 12th Issue. Others have detailed the updates very well already, but I’d like to talk about one specific update today: the currency revamp.

Let me say first that I have never felt TSW’s currency system was overly arduous. I have leveled my gear slower than others due to not always playing content that awards currency for upgrades…but since TSW gives me so many options for play and most do NOT require super elite gear, it was a non-issue for me. I only become annoyed by currency/content walls when they leave me with little or nothing else to do. TSW continually adds content that is playable with just basic story progression, so I’ve never felt like I missed out on new content because I wasn’t full 10.5.5. (Unlike other games I could mention…)

Currently, each main area (Solomon Island, Egypt, Transylvania, and Tokyo) has a specific Sequin that you can get through running missions or killing Nightmare level monsters; these Sequins are primarily used for pre-endgame gear progression. Issues 6 and 7 missions (main and side missions) award Credits of Ca d’Oro which can be used to buy issue-specific gear and gear upgrades. Nightmare Dungeons (and sometimes world bosses) award Black Bullion, one of two currencies primarily used for endgame gear progression. PvP awards Black and White Marks of Venice, and Distinction of the Council in a gearing progression unique to PvP. (While PvP gear can be used in PvE and vice versa, you can’t upgrade one with currency from another. Until Issue 12, you also can’t get 10.5 through PvP, only 10.4.) Scenarios also have their own currency, Aureus (“Oreos”) of Initiation, used for both gear bought from the scenario vendor and to unlock and upgrade Augments. AEGIS can only be upgraded with Tokyo Sequins. Depending on the activity, the vendors may sell upgrades, gear, clothing, or all of the above.

I suppose that sound confusing typed out, but in practice it just means different things you do ingame award their own currency to be used on their own vendors. It’s not hard to keep track of since it’s all linked to whatever it is you happen to be doing ingame, and I never felt it unfairly blocked me from progressing.

Still, when it was announced that TSW will be combining all non-pax currencies into either Black Bullion or a brand new currency (Marks of the Pantheon) linked to brand new gear progression; I found that amazing. Just off the top of my head, that means I’ll likely be able to get what was previously Nightmare Dungeon (or event) currency by: running scenarios, playing the Ca d’Oro missions, PvPing, hunting nightmare beasties, running any mission that currently awards Sequins (which is nearly all of them, I believe)…this gives me a huge amount of flexibility in my end game. The way it sounds, even if I run content in the very beginning zone, I’ll still receive (a small amount) of relevant currency. (I’ll further note I say this even though my main is past the Gatekeeper, and able to run Nightmare Dungeons.)

This also makes me chuckle a bit, because of another game. My secondary game was DCUO for a good chunk of time. Leaving aside my friend’s issue with a GM, the biggest reason I haven’t played in ages is that they did the opposite. They planned to adjust currency in such a way that I would have been unable to gain ANY relevant currency by running dungeons deemed below my gear rating. In a game where dungeons were already the primary way of gaining upgrade currency, this slashed my options for play immensely. As I said at the time, I don’t mind gaining currency slower by running content below my pay grade, but I get annoyed really quick if I can’t gain ANYTHING. TSW, a game I already love, has managed to do the opposite of what drove me away from another game I enjoyed…bravo!

Thanks again for bearing with my screwy schedule on here, it is much appreciated! As I’m posting this on Thursday, feel free to join us on Beyond the Veil, on Twitch or ingame, at 7pm EST!